{"id":466901,"date":"2026-09-17T15:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/466901\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:51:05","slug":"bay-area-cities-rank-in-top-10-most-intellectual-us-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/466901\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area cities rank in top 10 most intellectual US cities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>California is home to some of the nation\u2019s most knowledgeable people, according to a new ranking of the most intellectual cities in America.<\/p>\n<p>In a new study by the social club <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maxwellsocial.com\/soiree\/most-intellectual-cities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Maxwell<\/a> examining intellectual life across the 50 largest <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/05\/real-estate\/home-prices-dropping-fastest-in-major-us-cities\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US metropolitan areas<\/a>, San Francisco ranked as the third-most intellectual metro in the country behind Boston and Hartford, Conn.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/16\/us-news\/muni-funding-crisis-puts-san-francisco-home-values-at-risk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco earned<\/a> an Intellectual Life Score of 67.7 out of 100, trailing Boston\u2019s 80.3 and Hartford\u2019s 72.3.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>San Francisco ranked as the third-most intellectual metro in the country behind Boston and Hartford, Conn. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The deYoung Museum in San Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>San Jose landed at No. 6 overall and led the country in two categories, with 28.5% of adults holding graduate degrees and the metro area being home 36.9 adult-education schools per 100,000 residents, according to the study.<\/p>\n<p>But not all Californians had such high marks.<\/p>\n<p>San Jose landed at No. 6 overall. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>A mural in Riverside, which landed dead last on the list. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro came dead last on the list at No. 50, while Fresno ranked 49th. Las Vegas came in at third from the bottom.<\/p>\n<p>Fresno had a relatively strong showing for its universities, ranking 17th, but placed 39th for museums, 46th for libraries, and 45th for bookstores, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourcentralvalley.com\/news\/local-news\/fresno-intellectual-city-ranking\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter_KSEE24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YourCentralValley<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It ranked last among the metros studied for adult education, graduate degrees, and online search interest in intellectual activities.<\/p>\n<p>Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n<p>California Post News: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheCaliforniaPost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@CaliforniaPost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TikTok<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">X<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@thecaliforniapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Vb6a2IV1NCrL6q2AWq0E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WhatsApp<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/linkedin.com\/company\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a><br \/>California Post Sports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/capostsports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/capostsports\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@capostsports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TikTok<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@CaliforniaPostSports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/capostsports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">X<\/a><br \/>California Post  <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Opinion<\/a> <br \/>California Post Newsletters: <a href=\"https:\/\/email.nypost.com\/#california-post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up here!<\/a><br \/>California Post App: <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/california-post\/id6751343487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Download here!<\/a><br \/>Home delivery: <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.californiapost.com\/defaultCAP\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up here!<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/california-post\/id6751343487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><br \/><\/a>Page Six Hollywood: <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/hollywood-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up here!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fresno had a relatively strong showing for its universities, ranking 17th, but placed 39th for museums, 46th for libraries, and 45th for bookstores. Tribune News Service via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Maxwell Social ranked the 50 largest US metros using seven measures, including museums, libraries, universities, graduate degrees, adult education, bookstores and Google search interest in intellectual activities, adjusting the results for population to produce an overall score out of 100.<\/p>\n<p>The group also surveyed 905 non-student US adults aged 22 and older in August about where they find intellectual community after leaving school.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly seven in 10 adults, or 68%, said they craved more intellectually stimulating social environments as they got older, while 45% said social anxiety or the difficulty of attending alone had stopped them from seeking out those settings.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly seven in 10 adults, or 68%, said they craved more intellectually stimulating social environments as they got older. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Another 41% blamed a lack of time.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, 66% said they would trade a night of drinking for one centered around ideas, while 83% of respondents who go to bars said those venues felt \u201cintellectually empty\u201d at least some of the time.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California is home to some of the nation\u2019s most knowledgeable people, according to a new ranking of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[7,112,114,113,1637,4182,2311,115495,1997,3586],"class_list":["post-466901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-california","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-life","tag-metro","tag-museums","tag-rankings","tag-schools","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}